(above): The trailer for Inception. The architecture of the mind is exceedingly complex - and who is to say that we can't build and alter these pathways, these "Corridors - surpassing / Material Place" (F 407)? And when our dreams collapse, in shambles around us, do we lose ourselves in the process? The characters in the film are haunted by their past, and desperate to construct a new future. Keep it in mind as you think about the poem.
Haunting in F 407
In F 407, Dickinson conveys the haunting presence of the ghost that emphasizes the space created by the absence. The effectiveness of the haunting metaphor that she utilizes throughout the poem resonates because of “our attitude [that] virtually guarantees that our language will always be haunted by the absence of former things or persons signified by these surviving signs” (Tapscott 44). Dickinson grounds the poem in these empty spaces by comparing them to the “Corridors” of “The Brain” (line 3). Though she rejects the disturbing nature of the “Material Place” (line 4), she continues to reference the “lonesome Place” (line 12). Encountering these ghosts within the mind is impossible to avoid; and it is a far more terrifying concept for the speaker than encountering them in the real world.
The poem simultaneously both rejects and works toward facing the ghost within. Dickinson grapples with the internal haunting of the loss of self, as the speaker affirms “Ourself behind ourself, concealed” (line 13). The speaker is haunted from within, the mind echoing and refracting things past and present, and these deeper uncertainties are hidden in the layered depths of consciousness. The matrix of intertextuality with both psychoanalysis and Freudian thought is clear. The haunted cannot escape, because they are haunted by the repressed memories of things past attempting to surface. These memories are fleeting and ethereal, like ghosts, both present and absent, of the past and of the now. These “[ghosts] are both unthinkable and the only thing worth thinking about” (Davis 378). The speaker realizes that confronting the “External Ghost” (line 6) is easier “Than it’s interior confronting / That cooler host” (lines 7-8). The haunting from within is far more disturbing than that of the exterior. It is futile to avoid the terror within, and material possessions such as the “Revolver” and “the Door” (lines17-18) cannot keep these ghosts from surfacing. The corporeal provides no protection from the spiritual, as the “Body” is unable to see that he is “O’erlooking a superior spectre” (line 19)—himself, deep within.
Haunting in F 407
In F 407, Dickinson conveys the haunting presence of the ghost that emphasizes the space created by the absence. The effectiveness of the haunting metaphor that she utilizes throughout the poem resonates because of “our attitude [that] virtually guarantees that our language will always be haunted by the absence of former things or persons signified by these surviving signs” (Tapscott 44). Dickinson grounds the poem in these empty spaces by comparing them to the “Corridors” of “The Brain” (line 3). Though she rejects the disturbing nature of the “Material Place” (line 4), she continues to reference the “lonesome Place” (line 12). Encountering these ghosts within the mind is impossible to avoid; and it is a far more terrifying concept for the speaker than encountering them in the real world.
The poem simultaneously both rejects and works toward facing the ghost within. Dickinson grapples with the internal haunting of the loss of self, as the speaker affirms “Ourself behind ourself, concealed” (line 13). The speaker is haunted from within, the mind echoing and refracting things past and present, and these deeper uncertainties are hidden in the layered depths of consciousness. The matrix of intertextuality with both psychoanalysis and Freudian thought is clear. The haunted cannot escape, because they are haunted by the repressed memories of things past attempting to surface. These memories are fleeting and ethereal, like ghosts, both present and absent, of the past and of the now. These “[ghosts] are both unthinkable and the only thing worth thinking about” (Davis 378). The speaker realizes that confronting the “External Ghost” (line 6) is easier “Than it’s interior confronting / That cooler host” (lines 7-8). The haunting from within is far more disturbing than that of the exterior. It is futile to avoid the terror within, and material possessions such as the “Revolver” and “the Door” (lines17-18) cannot keep these ghosts from surfacing. The corporeal provides no protection from the spiritual, as the “Body” is unable to see that he is “O’erlooking a superior spectre” (line 19)—himself, deep within.